Race and Representative Paul Ryan

“We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with.”

These are the remarks of House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R Wisconsin). Defending himself and the above remarks, Ryan states:

 

“This has nothing to do whatsoever with race. It was a long talk and he asked about the culture and I just went off of that. This has nothing to do whatsoever with race. It never even occurred to me. This has nothing to do with race whatsoever. This isn’t a race based comment it’s a breakdown of families, it’s rural poverty in rural areas, and talking about where poverty exists — there are no jobs and we have a breakdown of the family.  This has nothing to do with race.”

 

Then there is rancher Clivan Bundy (an authority on the “Negro”) who asserts “I want to tell you one more thing I know about the ‘Negro,’” … “[B]ecause they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do? They abort their young children; they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

Bundy” remarks demonstrate pure and simple ignorance that is often associated with a dumb white farmer (excuse me, rancher) who grew up under the misguided assumption of “white superiority” which is the definition for the white “racist” who is of the “culture” of white racists who may or ay not know that he is one in the same.

Poor Ryan tries to walk back from his incendiary race centered remarks. In his case, we have the ignorant, but educated, prejudiced white political elite who sets about disgracing himself by the use of what might be termed, “implicative language.”  This clown’s thinly veiled  reference to African Americans, in particular, and people of color in general is intended to excuse direct reference to both populations that are “imprisoned” within the urban environments of America’s run-down, economically depressed, crime-ridden urban centers. Now, unless one has been residing under a rock at the bottom of one of the oceans, he/she is fully aware that urbana America is populated by Americans of African descent and other people of color.

 

What makes Ryan’s referencing and indictments of the “culture” so maddening is that he tries to give validity to his race baited comments by citing the studies of one Charles Murray. Murray can be truly classified as a “racist” of the first magnitude. He is one of a group of eugenists who crawl into the light every generation of so to to scholarly research designed to empirically prove the superiority of Caucasians and their brains over that of persons of the Negroid race. Murray’s study entitled “The Bell Curve” upon publication was received with general disgust. Among the academic community, Murray’s work was soundly castigated and denounced as invalid due to faulty methodology. This speaks volumes about Mr. Ryan who grabbed the first academic work he found in an effort to validate his claim that there is a problem of “culture” in the center cities of America.

 

And finally, there is the Donald Sterling, National Basketball scandal. What more can be said in response to questions about racism in America. The truth is, and should be understood, that race, racism and racial prejudice is just as much a part of America as is mom, baseball, and apple pie.